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106 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2007 REZA

The dangerously venomous Spectacled Cobra (Naja naja) is the main attraction for snake charmers in Bangladesh. 



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2007 107TRAVELOGUE

Ibegin my story in Dhaka, the swirling and chaotic mega-city
capital. The metropolitan area houses 11 million, making

Dhaka the largest city in Bangladesh, and one of the most pop-
ulous cities in the world. One does not enjoy a casual stroll
through Dhaka. A trip to the city’s center means bushwhacking
through throngs of garishly decorated rickshaws, buses held
together by Bondo putty, and taxis that belch and wheeze
around the clock. Dhaka also is not a pleasant-smelling city; a
hint of sewage and humanity always hangs in the hot and sticky
air. City people are generally very friendly, but many speak only
Bangla. Therefore, having a local guide is advisable if not famil-
iar with the language, culture, and customs. However, just miles
away from frenzied, industrialized Dhaka, the landscape changes
dramatically and reveals a verdant flatland covered by hand-
tended rice fields and palm trees waving lazily in the heat. 

Bangladesh is situated between the Indo-Himalayan and
Indo-Chinese subregions of the Orient. With 147 million peo-
ple occupying roughly the same area as Iowa, Bangladesh is
among the most densely populated nations on earth, but this
mostly agricultural country rarely makes the news in the West.
Within its nearly 144,000 km2, the country contains a number

of diverse ecosystems supporting roughly 113 species of mam-
mals, 628 birds, 126 reptiles, 22 amphibians, 708 species of
freshwater and marine fish, about 400 species of mollusks, and
140 bees and wasps, many of them on the nation’s list of threat-
ened animals. Few systematic studies have been conducted on
the biodiversity of the country (formerly East Pakistan) since
British scientists published their last book in 1943.

The current species list of Bangladesh, produced by IUCN
Bangladesh in 2000, was prepared broadly based on collections
made by British researchers a century ago. The country has nei-
ther a natural history museum nor a long-term biodiversity con-

T R A V E L O G U E

Destination Bangladesh: From the
Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal

AHM Ali Reza1

Department of Natural Resources Management, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409, USA

Photographs by the author.

Bangladesh is situated between the Indo-Himalayan and Indo-Chinese
subregions of the Orient.

1 Permanent Address: Department of Zoology, Jahangirnagar University,
Savar, Dhaka 1342, Bangladesh. E-mail: wild_reza@yahoo.com

A trip to Dhaka’s Newmarket area in the center of the nation’s largest
city means bushwhacking through throngs of garishly decorated rick-
shaws, buses held together by Bondo putty, and taxis that belch and
wheeze around the clock.



108 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2007

servation strategic plan. Thus, this mainly Muslim, impover-
ished, overpopulated, and poorly explored country is now draw-
ing attention from researchers and conservationists around the
globe. As a native, I wanted to initiate a research and conserva-
tion program on the herpetofauna of Bangladesh, the least
known and most neglected group of animals in the country. My
research goals included the production of an updated species list,
a set of GIS-based distribution maps, and estimates of species
composition and richness in various habitat types.

Based on various geographic, biological, and logistical fac-
tors, I selected seven permanent sampling sites (PSSs) in five dif-
ferent forest types: evergreen, semi-evergreen, deciduous, man-
grove, and swamp forest, and three study sites in urban and
suburban areas. I planned to spend at least one week in each of
my PSSs, which required a lot of paperwork. Worth mention-
ing here is that bureaucracy in a developing country is some-
times very frustrating, and is the main obstacle to conducting
research. Nonetheless, the summer of 2006 found me exploring
hot and humid tropical forests with some graduate students
from the Department of Zoology, Jahangirnagar University and
other assistants. Jahangirnagar, one of 28 public universities in
Bangladesh, is in the district of the capital city, Dhaka.

We headed northeast into the Lawachara National Park, a
1,250-hectare, highly diverse evergreen forest. The park is the
home to several primate species, including the only ape of the
country, the Hoolock Gibbon (Hylobates hoolock). A bus ride of
about six hours got me to the nearby township of Srimangal.
This was not a peaceful journey, Bangladeshi drivers are not
known for staying in their lanes. From there, we made our way
to the national park headquarters in a “rickshaw,” a locally-made
three-wheeled vehicle pulled by a human, only to be informed
that my team would not be allowed to use the Hilltop Forest
Rest House, the only place to stay overnight in the park. This
meant we had to walk in each night, a journey of about 10
miles. On the way out from the forest around midnight, we
found Leptobrachium smithii, a dark frog that had not been
recorded from the park. Two lizards that had not previously been

reported from the country were also recorded: Scincella reevesii,
a common ground-dwelling skink, and Ptyctolaemus gularis, a
relatively uncommon Calotes-like agamid lizard that we found
about 2 m high on a tree-trunk.

Undulating red soil and Sal (Shorea robusta) forest are the
main ecological features of Madhupur National Park, my next
PSS. Sal forests are relatively dry and have been dramatically
reduced during the last few decades, but a few older stands
remain and provide a home for serpents. Nocturnal and deadly
venomous, the Banded Krait (Bungarus fasciatus) is considered
“endangered” in Bangladesh. Normally, these snakes are very

REZA

Brightly colored and noisy Tokay Geckos (Gekko gecko) are common
in most old buildings.

Lawachara National Park is a 1,250-hectare, highly diverse evergreen
forest.



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2007 109TRAVELOGUE

secretive and very difficult to locate, but I found several fresh
roadkills on the road that meanders through the 8,438-hectare
deciduous forest in north-central Bangladesh. We recorded a
brightly colored microhylid, Kalophrynus orangensis, which has
recently been proposed to be synonymous with K. interlineatus,
for the first time in Bangladesh. Kaloula taprobanica, another
dark, painted microhylid also was collected from a head-high

The Green Fan-throated Lizard (Ptyctolaemus gularis) was recorded for the first time in Bangladesh.

We found a Sri Lankan Painted Frog (Kaloula taprobanica) in a head-
high tree-hole.

Undulating red soil and Sal forest are the main ecological features of
the deciduous forest.

Reeves’s Ground Skink (Scincella reevesii), another first record for
Bangladesh.



110 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2007 REZA

tree-hole. This is the first voucher specimen of this species from
the country. Many Asian ranids have been subjected to a long
taxonomic debate. We recorded an abundance of the noisy Rana
leptoglossa (the recently revised name of which is now Sylvirana
leptoglossa) from the park, and this also was a first record of the
species from the region. We noticed the Berdmore’s Narrow-
Mouthed Frog (Microhyla berdmorei) in great abundance during
late-June.

My next destination was Comilla Tipperah Hills, a
degraded Sal forest habitat in east-central Bangladesh that expe-
riences flash floods during the rainy season. Most of the hilly
areas are already clear-cut, and considerable development
occurred during the last couple of decades. We did not find any
old trees or a good patch of forest, and decided to conduct sur-
veys in the agricultural fields nearby, from which we recorded
mostly common species. We did find two new skink species of
the genus Sphenomorphus (S. maculatus and S. indicus) that had
not been recorded from Bangladesh. Among several other skink
species, Lygosoma bowringii was a new record for the country,
considerably extending its range from the nearest know popu-
lations in Myanmar. We also observed breeding ranids,
Sylvirana leptoglossa, which also represented a new record of the
species outside Madhupur National Park in north-central
Bangladesh.

Three mountainous districts occur in southeastern
Bangladesh: Khagrachari, Bandarban, and Rangamati. These are
covered in forests that extend from Myanmar and northeastern
India, and are highly diverse, mostly intact, and poorly explored.
Getting there required an eight-hour bus journey from Dhaka
to Chittagong, then a three-hour bus ride to Bandarban, and
finally a “chander gari,” a locally produced four-wheel-drive
jeep-like vehicle. My western friend had to get special permis-
sion, as foreigners are not normally allowed to visit these politi-
cally restless districts. While looking for amphibians and reptiles
in the area, local people were constantly providing us informa-
tion on sightings of frogs, snakes, and lizards. In response to such
information, we were able to capture a Cat Snake (Boiga

We recorded the Sticky Frog (Kalophrynus interlineatus) for the first
time in Bangladesh from Madhupur National Park.

Like many other Asian ranids, Sylvirana leptoglossa has been subjected
to prolonged taxonomic debates.

Uncommon Berdmore’s Narrow-Mouthed Frog (Microhyla berdmorei)
is found frequently in Madhupur National Park.



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2007 111

ochracea) and a very fast-moving Trinket Snake (Coelognathus
radiatus), inside our “well-protected” hillside resort campus. We
also collected several species of skinks, the most important of
which were Lygosoma lineolatum, which had not been described
in earlier records, Sphenomorphus maculatus, which we had
found already in the Camilla Tiperah Hills, and Eutropis macu-
laria, which was quite common in the area. We spent more than
an hour capturing a Calotes versicolor sleeping high in a tree at
night inside the resort. Mountain streams are quite common in
these three hill districts, and we recorded a megophryid frog,
Xenophrys parva, by one such stream.

Haor is an internationally important seasonal wetland that
includes numerous rivers, streams, irrigation canals, and large
areas of seasonally flooded cultivated plains. Situated in north-
eastern Bangladesh, the Haor Basin is one of the most remote
areas of the country. The Tanguar Haor is a 97.3 km2

UNESCO “World Heritage Site,” and an important wintering
and breeding ground for migratory birds. Water depths in the
Haor vary from 5–10 m during the wet season and 1–4 m in
some shallower wetland areas. We hired a boat especially
designed to cruise in shallow water, but could not conduct a
thorough survey this year because of logistical problems. We are
planning to do so in the coming years. We did, however, record
several species of common frogs and aquatic snakes (e.g.,
Enhydris enhydris, Xenochrophis piscator, etc.). We also found a
few softshell turtles (Aspideretes gangeticus and A. hurum) that
had been captured by local turtle hunters who we encountered
on the way to local fish markets. We collected tissue samples for
DNA analyses.

TRAVELOGUE

We recorded Bowring’s Supple Skink (Lygosoma bowringii) for the first time in Bangladesh.

Spotted Litter Skinks (Sphenomorphus maculatus) are common, but
were recorded for the first time from Comilla Tipperah Hills.

The Khagrachari, Bandarban, and Rangamati hill districts are covered
in evergreen forests.



112 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2007 REZA

The mildly venomous nocturnal Tawny Cat Snake (Boiga ochracea) was only found in the Bandarban Hills.

This small Bronze Grass Skink (Eutropis macularia) is widely distributed in plains and hilly areas throughout the country.

Common Smooth Water Snakes (Enhydris enhydris) are common in
most wetlands in Bangladesh.

Local people often were a good source of information for finding
amphibians and reptiles in unfamiliar areas.



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2007 113TRAVELOGUE

Indian Softshell Turtles (Aspideretes gangeticus) are still common in large rivers like the Brahmaputra and its tributaries.

Indian Roofed Turtles (Pangshura tectum) are popular in pet markets in Dhaka.



My final destination was the Sundarbans, the largest chunk
of productive mangrove forest in the world, and another World
Heritage Site that extends through both India and Bangladesh.
At the mouth of the mighty Ganges, this wide area of impene-
trable mangroves supports a varied and fascinating array of nat-
ural and anthropological treasures. The Bangladeshi Sundarbans
covers an area of about 5,770 km2, of which 4,016 km2 is land
and the rest is composed of rivers, canals, and creeks. Only a
couple of centuries ago, the Sundarbans was twice its current
size, but much of it has been altered. It is a crucial conservation
area hosting Bengal Tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) and many other
species, including the world’s largest venomous snake, the King
Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), and the world’s largest living rep-
tile, the Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus). This mangrove
area also is one of the world’s most effective cyclone barriers, and
also serves as a food factory capable of feeding our children in
perpetuity. Transport in the Sundarbans is difficult and danger-
ous, especially during the cyclone months. We rented a boat and
launched from Khulna, the last human habitation in the north-
ern part of the Sundarbans, and spent most of the time onboard.
Our little “Titanic” carried several thousand gallons of freshwa-
ter and enough food for the whole team to eat, drink, and take
showers for an entire week.

I end my story on Katka Beach, situated south of the
Sundarbans mangrove forest, on a crisp and gorgeous day, with
no one else to enjoy the wide swath of powdery white sand
beach that stretched from horizon to horizon. The Earth’s bio-
diversity is being lost at a frightening rate, and we must act now
to conserve our life support system. We humans, who have been
given the power and wisdom to achieve so much, should recog-
nize that protecting ecosystems and wildlife will ultimately
ensure our own survival. Bangladesh is an impoverished, over-
populated, beleaguered, and mostly forgotten country, but those
of us from southern Asia have a headstart on the rest of the
world because of our positive attitude towards nature. We

respect other life forms and are grateful for the gifts nature
bestows upon us.

Acknowledgements
A very special thanks to my academic advisor Dr. Gad Perry,
who encouraged me to write this article and reshaped the very
first draft, and to Dr. Aaron M. Bauer, who critically reviewed
the manuscript. Financial support for my project was provided
by the Rufford Small Grants for Nature Conservation, the
Conservation Research Small Grants of Cleveland Zoological
Society and Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Turtle Survival Alliance
(TSA), and Texas Tech University. Finally, I thank my field crew,
Stephen Mahoney from Ireland, Dr. Peter Praschag from
Austria, Md. Abdul Aziz, Md. Kamrul Hasan, and Kamal
Hossain from Jahangirnagar University, for their help and com-
panionship in the field.

114 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2007 REZA

A good population of King Cobras (Ophiophagus hannah) remains
only in the Sundarbans mangrove forest.

The dangerously venomous Spectacled Cobra (Naja naja) is the main
attraction for snake charmers in Bangladesh. 




